TRR 38:  Structures and Processes of the Initial Ecosystem Development Phase in an Artificial Water Catchment

• Subject Area: Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine ; Geosciences
• Term: from 2007 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 20005246

The Transregional Collaborative Research Centre aims to investigate relevant structures and processes of the initial ecosystem development phase and to differentiate them from those occurring in later stages of ecosystem development. The overall hypothesis is: The initial ecosystem development phase forms the later state of ecosystems. The Transregional Collaborative Research Centre investigates an artificial water catchment starting from point zero of its primary development. The investigations focus on the analysis of initial development processes, which are affected by existing and newly generated structures. It has been hypothesised that the initial ecosystem genesis can be divided into different phases of development.
The objective of the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre is to enhance integral models of structure genesis in ecosystems and of process dynamics as well as their interactions during the initial development phase. The integration of structure and process data will be realised by means of a comprehensive "structure and process model", which has to be developed within this collaborative project. This model will be the central tool for data aggregation and result integration. It will be used to elucidate and define characteristic conditions and phases of the development.
The central research site of the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre is the artificially created water catchment "Chicken Creek" with an area of about 6 hectare left to an undirected succession that allows the integrated analysis of all results on a landscape scale. Further, boundary conditions of this site are clearly defined including well documented inner structures as compared to natural catchments. These are important prerequisites for the validation and optimisation of established water and element budget models.
Additionally to this central research object, an experimental site close-by will be used to analyse identified structure building processes by means of specific manipulations. For this reason, specific interventions into the natural succession as well as the use of stable isotopes as tracers are planned here. In addition, investigations will be conducted at sites for comparison e.g., on inland dunes in Northeastern Germany as well as on a glacier front end in the Swiss Alps. These additional sites allow to differentiate between site-specific influences and universally valid process and structure patterns of the initial ecosystem development phase that can be applied to similar ecosystems and different site conditions.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• International Connection: Switzerland

Completed projects

• A02 - Patterns of carbon and nutrient fluxes during initial soil formation (Project Heads Hagedorn, Frank ;  Schaaf, Wolfgang )
• A03 - Initial patterns and processes of soil organic matter formation (Project Heads Bens, Oliver ;  Fischer, Thomas ;  Kögel-Knabner, Ingrid )
• A04 - Development and interactions of flow paths on the surface and in the soil (Project Heads Gerke, Horst Herbert ;  Oswald, Sascha E. )
• B01 - Root system development and its impact on soil formation in initial ecosystem genesis: role of mycorrhizal fungi and plant competition for soil nutrients with patchy distribution (Project Heads Frossard, Emmanuel ;  Hüttl, Reinhard F. ;  Schneider, Bernd Uwe ;  Schröder-Esselbach, Boris ;  Schulin, Rainer )
• B03 - Einfluss verschiedener krautiger Pionierpflanzen auf die Dynamik von mikrobiellen Destruentengemeinschaften während initialer Stadien der Ökosystementwicklung (Project Heads Munch, Jean Charles ;  Schloter, Michael )
• B04 - Factors influencing the structure and function of biological crusts during ecosystem development (Project Heads Munch, Jean Charles ;  Schloter, Michael )
• B05 - Significance of physical and biological structures on C-transformation, Caccumulation and microorganisms during initial succession in stream corridors (Project Heads Gessner, Mark ;  Mutz, Michael )
• C01 - Analysis and modeling of water and matter fluxes in an evolving artificial catchment" (Project Heads Bronstert, Axel ;  Kirchner, James ;  Oswald, Sascha E. )
• C02 - A priori Vorhersagen in der Einzugsgebietshydrologie (Project Head Flühler, Hannes )
• C03 - Processes and interactions driving the initial vegetation development (Project Heads Biber, Peter ;  Bugmann, Harald ;  Lischke, Heike ;  Pretzsch, Hans )
• C05 - Development of a structure and process model (Project Heads Gerke, Horst Herbert ;  Hüttl, Reinhard F. )
• Z02 - Zentrale Aufgaben des SFB/Transregios (Project Head Hüttl, Reinhard F. )
• Z02 - Central Taks (Project Head Hüttl, Reinhard F. )

• Applicant Institution: Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg
• Co-Applicant Institution: ETH Zürich; Technische Universität München (TUM); Universität Potsdam
• Participating Institution: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH) ; Forschungsanstalt WSL - Wald-Schnee-Landschaft ; (WSL/FNP); Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam - Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ); Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei (IGB); im Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V.; Leibniz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF) e.V.
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Reinhard F. Hüttl